Poetry & Fiction · Est. 2021 · Edinburgh

Stories from
the streets,
sent to your
inbox.

Poetry and fiction taken from the road, delivered directly to your inbox.

The drunk on a platform desires someone he can no longer name. A woman on a night train through Poland refuses to wipe tears from her eyes. In a Whitechapel box room, he pours himself another measure, attempts to call her back. Everything and nothing happening all at once, people moving through life at good speed.

Tumbleweed Words is a newsletter of poetry and flash fiction written in hostels, on trains, and in streets that don't know your name. Published in Adelaide Magazine, Litro, Cleaver Magazine, and The Dundee Anthology. Pushcart-nominated. Over a thousand readers. Every week. Free. Substack is home to the newsletter.

Start reading free Support the work →

Free · Weekly · No ads · No spam · Unsubscribe any time

"Everyone wears black so hard you don't notice after a while that there are differing shades."

David — ‘train in vain’ — Berlin, winter

From the archive — flash fiction, Berlin

Your first read.
Written on a U-Bahn.

"I wait for a train that circles the city like bats. At night in Berlin you can imagine anything you want. The carriages are full of inviting people I never talk to. Everyone wears black so hard you don't notice after a while that there are differing shades."

David — ‘train in vain’ — Tumbleweed Words

Written on a Berlin U-Bahn in winter. A punk on the platform, chewing gum the colour of her hair. The Clash in your ears. This lands in your inbox every week. Poetry and fiction. Not about the city. From inside it.

Read the archive free → Craft essays & tools

What you're actually subscribing to

The poetry & fiction

Flash fiction and prose poetry in the minimalist tradition. Gritty, specific, cinematic. Published in Litro, Adelaide Magazine, Cleaver Magazine, and The Dundee Anthology.

Where it comes from

Written on trains, in hostels, at café tables in cities still strange. Not about the nomadic life — from inside it. The streets and the people on them are the material. Lisbon. Berlin. Buenos Aires. Glasgow. Seoul.

The record

Pushcart-nominated. Internationally published. Five years on Substack. Over a thousand readers. No publisher. No algorithm. Poetry and fiction in your inbox every week.

Recent publications

Adelaide Magazine

Easy to Believe

Fiction

Adelaide Magazine

We Will Know Love

Fiction

Litro Magazine

Expat in Paris

Essay — James Baldwin

Cleaver Magazine

Street Song

Poetry

White Wall Review

Published Works

Fiction & Poetry

Tumbleweed Words

Growing Pains

Fiction — Published NY & Lisbon

All writing on Tumbleweed Words →

David

Writer · Edinburgh & Everywhere

Pushcart Prize nominated

Adelaide Magazine

Litro Magazine

Cleaver Magazine

The Dundee Anthology

MA Creative Writing

5 years on Substack

What lands in your inbox
was written there.

In growing pains, two boys sit cross-legged on worn carpet eating Chicken Kiev off steaming plates while their dads drink their wages at the pub. The detail is exact because the memory is exact. David doesn't gather material. He writes from inside it before the city moves on.

"You're not a serious person anymore, Gabriel. Was I ever? Before the drink, yes. Well, sort of."

A man in a box room in Whitechapel. Love Is A Dog From Hell on the floor. A flip phone and a rolled cigarette. Calling her back. Specific enough to be true. Compressed enough to land in your inbox and stay there.

Tumbleweed Words on Substack has been going for five years. Poetry and fiction, every week. The question is whether you want it in your inbox.

Subscribe free About →

The next poem or story is being
written on the road for you now.

Somewhere out there, on a lamplit platform waiting for a last train. At a bar in a city not yet understood. Among crowds moving through after-midnight streets. Poetry and fiction taken from the streets, sent from the road to your inbox every week. Tumbleweed Words is a newsletter inspired by stories found on the road — sometimes discarded, sometimes gifted.

Subscribe for free Become a paid subscriber →

Support the work

The newsletter is free.
Paid gives you full access
for less than a cup of coffee.

Tumbleweed Words is a community of creatives. The newsletter is free and always will be. A paid subscription supports the work directly and gives you full access to everything — all posts, complete archive, and the knowledge you are keeping five years of independent literary publishing alive.

Full access to all posts and the complete archive
Behind-the-piece notes — the craft, the city, what the poem or story became
Direct access — reply to any email, it gets read
Support independent poetry and fiction from the road

Become a paid subscriber → Subscribe for free

It lands in your inbox,
you read it on the road.

One poem or story a week. Written from wherever. Free to read. No conditions.

Start reading Tumbleweed Words →

Free · Weekly · Unsubscribe any time · No ads · Ever

All writing Style quiz Prompts Magazine finder About Newsletter

Stories fromthe streets,sent to yourinbox.

Your first read.Written on a U-Bahn.

What lands in your inboxwas written there.

The next poem or story is beingwritten on the road for you now.

The newsletter is free.Paid gives you full accessfor less than a cup of coffee.

Let's connect.

It lands in your inbox,you read it on the road.

Stories from
the streets,
sent to your
inbox.

Your first read.
Written on a U-Bahn.

What lands in your inbox
was written there.

The next poem or story is being
written on the road for you now.

The newsletter is free.
Paid gives you full access
for less than a cup of coffee.

It lands in your inbox,
you read it on the road.